Thursday, June 11, 2015

The King
and Queen of the Netherlands came for a visit to West Michigan recently. As the
son of a Dutch immigrant, but a man who considers himself fully American, this
was an event that struck me as both interesting and odd.

It was
interesting because of my ethnic connection to the Netherlands. My mother told
a few stories about Queen Juliana, who was on the throne when my mom’s family
was still in the Netherlands.

It was also
interesting because I know less than I should about my ancestral homeland.
Typical of the offspring of immigrants, I did not learn the history, culture,
or governance traditions of the land from whence my family came. I have visited
a half dozen other countries, but only set foot in the Netherlands once to
change planes at the airport. I have studied three languages in addition to
English, but none of them are Dutch.

So it
became interesting on the occasion of the Dutch royal family’s visit to learn
from media accounts things my family did not pass on to me or my siblings and
cousins in favor of assimilating as Americans. But as I followed the accounts
of the visit in the media (I was not invited to meet King Willem and Queen
Maxima, in spite of my heritage), the spectacle struck me as odd. Several
questions came to mind.

One
question I had was why we know so little about Dutch royalty and so much about
British royalty. With the Brits, we know about every act from dating to
proposal to marriage to pregnancy to birth. We hear about royal scandals and
rumors. But it took the Dutch royals’ visit to learn their very names, and
details of their family.

There are
several reasons for this. The British prevailed over the Dutch as a world power
at the time of the American revolution. So while the Dutch had much to do in
American history, the British were more prominent and recent. For example, the
British power allowed them to rename New Amsterdam to New York, and it was from
Britain that the U.S. sought independence.

There is of
course the advantage of language. While the English spoken in England can sound
different than they way we speak in the U.S., it is certainly more
understandable than Dutch. We Americans can understand comments made by the
British royals, an we can follow British media. The British also tend to
cultivate the attention a bit more than the Dutch. King Willem, who only became
King in 2013, has an understanding with the media that he is only interviewed
at official occasions. Otherwise he and his family are off limits for questions
and photographs.

The British
royals also garner more attention because they typically keep the throne for
life. The Dutch more traditionally willingly step down or abdicate the throne.
This makes the change of power more dramatic in England, where there is a
large, public and dramatic public funeral and coronation when royal power
changes hands. The Dutch have a more routinized transition, a form or royal
retirement and promotion.

By the way,
I have three thrones in my house. I abdicate them often. I understand the
regularity with which I do this is healthy medically (it is best to willingly
step down than to die there), but I had not known it to be an activity of royal
significance until the visit of the Dutch King and Queen recently brought
attention to it.

Seriously,
the Dutch royals’ visit also made me wonder why we Americans get excited about
royalty at all. Is it not in our national fiber to resent the monarchy? Perhaps
we are less offended by the modern monarchy because they play more of a ceremonial
than an authoritative role. As such, they are more akin to ambassadors and
democratic representatives of foreign countries than persons ruling by “divine
right,” as was assumed hundreds of years ago.

But I also
think we humans are fascinated by and have a need for persons to admire, exalt,
and even worship. This was evident prominently in the Old Testament, when the
people of Israel built golden statues to worship even as God spoke to Moses, or
they begged the prophet Samuel for a king, as opposed to being satisfied with
God, so they could be like other nations. Today, we Americans raise up athletes
and actors, musicians and politicians, and others to be our ceremonial
monarchs. We proclaimed Elvis to be King, we have our Queen Latifa, we gather
around our “American Idol.”

Nevertheless,
King Willem and Queen Maxima flew home to the Netherlands on a royal jet. There
they will continue to live and serve within the limits of the Dutch constitution,
one-third of which addresses the monarchy. We in West Michigan can return
freely to being kings and queens of our respective castles, doing what we do
unceremoniously, attending to our duties and responsibilities both small and
significant.